Burns to try again for early release from jail

Joshua Burns, in orange, and wife Brenda Burns hold hands in this file photo from a July hearing where he learned he will not lose his parental rights to his daughter. Also pictured is Brenda Burns’ attorney, Elizabeth Warner, far right.(Photo: Lisa Roose-Church/Livingston Daily)

Attorneys for a Brighton father serving a jail sentence for abusing his then-11-week-old daughter will once again ask a judge to allow their client’s early release from jail.

Joshua Quincy Burns’ attorneys are asking a Livingston County judge to reduce his one-year jail sentence for second-degree child abuse by an estimated 90 days because the jail cannot accommodate the court’s prior order allowing him counseling sessions that include visitation with his daughter, Naomi Burns, now 1.

Undersheriff Michael Murphy said Friday that the jail would allow a counselor to visit Burns in jail and would accommodate Naomi’s visitation according to the court order. If the counselor is unwilling to go to the jail, however, then the jail charges the inmate $60 per hour for an officer to transport him or her to the counseling session.

The hearing is set for 9 a.m. Sept. 8 before Judge Miriam Cavanaugh in Howell.

At that same time, the state’s Department of Health and Human Services is expected to present a service plan to the court that should include its recommendations for services to help reunite the Burns family following Cavanaugh’s earlier ruling that he would not lose his parental rights to his daughter.

Cavanaugh ordered that Burns attend counseling sessions and that his daughter be integrated into the sessions after six weeks.

If the judge declines to reduce Burns’ jail sentence, then attorneys for the Michigan Innocence Project, which is representing him on appeal, are asking the judge to allow Burns to be released from jail “as needed to facilitate court-ordered services.” They likened it to when an inmate is given work release.

According to court documents, the defense attorneys are also asking that Cavanaugh remove her provisions that Burns complete a batterer’s program at LACASA and that she allow him to travel out of state as needed for work.

Burns was convicted in a criminal trial of second-degree child abuse and was subsequently sentenced to three years of probation with the first year served in the Livingston County Jail. In a separate civil trial, he was found responsible for Naomi’s injuries — and as a result, the state says the law required DHHS to seek termination of the first-time father’s parental rights.

Burns has maintained his innocence, claiming his daughter’s medical conditions were the result of birth trauma and not the fall from his lap or his catching her by her face to stop her from hitting a coffee table.